Farmer Peg: Cold Morning Chores

I woke up at 6am to a very cold morning. I wanted nothing more than to remain under the mountain of blankets in my bed. However my bedroom door quietly opened and hubby approached me on tip-toe.

"Are you awake?"

"Yes," I answered groggily.

This morning Farm Girl had to work and since we are down to one vehicle after the transmission blew in my van, I had to drive both her and her dad to work. The first thing I do every morning is check the fire. We rely heavily on heat from the fire. Not only does it help to keep the house warm, but the woodstove is connected through underfloor pipes to our water heater. We save on hydro by having the woodstove heat the hot water tank. This morning the fire is burning warmly as hubby had already seen to it.

Outside, it was pitch black when we made our way to the truck. I press the remote on the key chain and the truck lights flash long enough for us not to stumble over something in the dark. Harley, our golden retriever walks next to me, eager for the car ride. He is my constant companion and virtually goes wherever I go.

We drive fifteen minutes northwest to the dormant lakeside town where hubby works. Now a ghost town this chilly winter morning, but quite the opposite during the summer months. After we drop him off, we head back the direction we came. Farm Girl has an early morning shift at the shop she works at in town. We chat farm talk and our goals for the farm for the next year on the drive. Once I drop her off, I head back to the farm where the sun was just beginning to rise.

I don`t ever head out to the barn before sunrise for two reasons. One, we don`t have any security or yard lights and the barn is a far enough distance from the house for me to not want to wander out in the pitch dark into heaven knows what. (Have I mentioned we live across the road from a 200 hectare swamp?) And two, I figure the animals don't really rise before the sun anyway.

So it is the break of dawn when I enter the chicken coop first. There is a red heat lamp hanging over their water bowl to keep it from freezing but it has been so cold lately that the lamp isn't helping at all and the bowl is full of ice. I go back into the house where Oldest has boiled a kettle for tea. I take the remaining water and bring it out to the coop where I add it to the frozen water bowl. Next, I fill there feed bowl and the silkie's feed bowl. The silkie's are housed separately ever since one of them was attacked and killed in the coop by the other chickens. After feeding all the chickens, I fill the scoop with more feed and had over to the duck's pen. They greet me loudly eager for their breakfast. I toss them their feed then head for the barn.

It is so cold that when I grasp the door handle I can feel it sticking to my knitted gloves as I swing it open. I am assaulted by the baaing of goats and sheep. The horse's softly neigh their good morning while the barn cats scatter around my feet eager for their breakfast. I feed the sheep first as they are the loudest and most demanding, then the goats are next. Pixie is sharing their stall, keeping warm indoors from the frigid weather outside. I'll be honest and admit she is our favourite and gets special treatment. But if the weather really turned nasty I wouldn't hesitate to bring all the mini's in but for now, Pixie gets her own bed and her own helping of hay. I feed her first and the goats stand back and wait their turn, respecting her as the alpha in the stall.

Next the goats finally get their share and lastly I toss a flake of hay into each horse's stall. I greet Aussie with an affectionate pet to the head before dragging the hose over to his stall and filling his water bucket. I continue filling all the horse's buckets and then the sheep and goats water buckets as well. The hose is long to reach the pasture trough`s but there is a leak at the joint. We place that area of the hose over a water bucket to capture the leaking water and prevent it from spreading all over the barn floor.

The rabbit's cage is across from the hose and tap and I see them all huddled around their water bottle looking up at me with pleading eyes. Normally, the rabbit's are my son's chore. He comes out every morning and supper to feed and water the rabbits, but it is so cold outside that I decide to tend to the rabbits myself and allow the boy to remain nice and warm back at the house this cold morning. I fill their water bottle and their food bowl with rabbit pellets before climbing into their pen and heading over to the buck's cages. I fill their feed bowl's and take their water bottles away to refill them. Once they are done, I finally head over to the deep freezer and scoop out a large heaping of cat food and fill the cat bowl that I leave sitting on the top of the deep freezer out of reach of hungry dogs. The cats all leap to the freezer and circle the bowl. I don't bother filling them a water bowl as they get their share from the bucket capturing the leaking water under the hose.

With all the animals fed and watered in the barn, I next collect all the hay I need for the horse`s that stayed outside overnight. The sun has fully risen by now as I make my way over to the mini`s pasture where I toss them some hay over their gate. They are a nice group of miniatures, all sharing their food nicely with no bullying. Dreamer, on the other hand, is not such a friendly mini and would bite or kick everyone away from the hay to keep it all for herself. We moved her into the horse`s pasture where we figured she would be put into place. And sure enough, the bigger horse`s have placed her at the bottom of the pecking order. And, so far, she respects that. Except for Sierra, our yearling. Dreamer tries to dominate her so we make sure Chase is always around to protect her. His most favourite filly.

But Sierra is in the barn this morning so it is only Chase and Dreamer out in the horse`s pasture. I toss Chase his flake of hay and watch Dreamer stand back waiting patiently. When Chase is done or ready, he will allow Dreamer to come and eat. While all the outside horse`s and miniature's are eating I check their water troughs and are not surprised to find them frozen. I turn them over to remove the ice but it is so cold out that it doesn`t make any difference. I stand on the upturned bottom and jump on it until finally I hear the release of the ice hitting the ground. I flip the trough over and toss aside the broken ice. It shatters into small pieces. I then make my way back to the barn and haul out the extended hose. While the mini`s trough fills (only about a 1/4 of the way as the mini's won't drink all that much water in one day and if the trough freeze's too full, I won't be able to toss it the next day) I head over to the horse's trough and repeat the same thing.

The gate to the horse's pasture is frozen and once again my gloves stick to the metal. I make a mental note to remind the kids the importance of wearing gloves outdoors today. Once the mini's trough has filled enough, I haul the hose over to the horse's pasture and fill their's also about a 1/4 of the way full. For the first time this morning I stop working and take those few minutes to look around. The silence of the morning is only filled with the gentle munching of horses. The crisp raw air stings my cheeks. A gentle snow falls from the sky. I turn and take in the pasture to my west.